#ImmigrantHealthHeroes Is Highlighting The Immigrant Health Care Workers Keeping Us All Safe

The COVID-19 pandemic is giving people a better understanding of the work health care workers do to keep the public safe. Their responsibilities have life and death consequences and adding a pandemic on top of that exacerbates the already demanding nature of the job. Now, add an immigration crisis and crackdown.

Immigrant health care workers are getting some special love with #ImmigrantHealthHeroes.

Immigrants make up a large portion of the health care industry. According to the New American Economy, 16.4 percent, or 2.8 million, of health care workers are foreign-born people. In New York, the hardest-hit state in the U.S., 34.3 percent of health care workers are foreign-born people. For New Jersey, 30.6 percent of their health care workers are foreign-born and 31.6 percent of health care workers in California are foreign-born people.

The social media movement is giving people a chance to learn more about what our health care workers are dealing with.

Here’s how Denisse Rojas—a 4th-year med student at New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and one of our incredible Dreamers—is fighting for patients in this pandemic:

“I’ve been volunteering with our free clinic, which is called East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership,” medical student Denisse Rojas told Senator Chuc Schumer. “We serve uninsured patients in East Harlem so folks who unfortunately otherwise may not be able to see a doctor. Because of COVID, we’ve been doing a lot of our appointments over telehealth. The common medical conditions include diabetes and hypertension.”

Communities of color are some of the hardest-hit places in the country. Chicago has seen a surge in cases in the Latino community while the rest of the city is experiencing a decrease in cases. Diabetes is one disease that COVID-19 exacerbates leading to the death of a positive patient.

More than 202,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are joined in battle on the front lines against COVID-19.

DACA recipients, who are waiting for the Supreme Court to decide the fate of the program, make up more than 202,000 health care workers. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the case at any moment. Hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients are anxiously awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court while doing their part to combat the health pandemic.

The hashtag is bringing attention to Senate Bill 386, which wants to prevent most immigrants from getting residency through employment.

SB 386 is seeking to limit immigration over the next 10 years by no longer allowing immigrants to earn residency and green cards through employment. Indian and Chinese nationals would be exempt meaning they would still be allowed to earn a green card through employment. Currently, the law states that of 140,000 green cards issued through employment a year, there is a cap of 7 percent of the green cards per country. According to the State Department, India, China, and the Phillippines have the longest application lines with India’s stretching for more than half a century.

SB 386 would allow for more people from certain countries to obtain green cards through employment. To be exact, the bill would eliminate the 7 percent limit entirely. However, the language excludes all but two countries on the planet. This would mean that cities like Miami that rely heavily on employing people from Latin America would suffer and struggle to compete globally.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, let’s honor and show love to all of the health care workers fighting the good fight to keep us safe.

Tributes To Nurses Flood Social Media In Honor Of National Nurses Day

Tributes To Nurses Flood Social Media In Honor Of National Nurses Day

Nurses have been the unsung heroes of the health care world for a long time. COVID-19 has only further complicated their demanding and important jobs. Once a year, the country dedicates a day to honor the nurses that keep patients alive and safe.

It’s #NationalNursesDay and the tribute and love are flowing on social media.

To the nurses across America who are caring for our sick with unbelievable bravery and compassion:

Millions of nurses are staffing hospitals across the country fighting on the front lines of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak. The U.S. is fighting the largest and deadliest outbreak in the world with more than 1 million Americans testing positive for the virus. More than 72,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19.

Women are by and large the majority of nurses.

I’ve worked several nights with brave ICU nurses like these caring for the #COVID19 critically ill. I may spend anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours in a room on shift BUT these nurses are in the room the entire night, giving TLC. We owe you a debt of gratitude. #ThankYouNursespic.twitter.com/p7AxwG3X2S

Women are at the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Ninety-one percent of nurses are women, as well as 74 percent of health care workers and 62 percent of pharmaceutical professionals. The nurses handle a lot of the day-to-day operations of caring for sick and dying patients. Like many of the health care workers, nurses are putting themselves at risk of contracting the virus every day they report for work.

A nurse’s job entails the most intimate day-to-day care of patients putting them at a greater risk of contracting the virus.

Health care workers are willingly putting themselves at the repeated risk of contracting COVID-19. The health care workers at the front lines are keeping our loved ones safe and healthy as they get the virus under control.

Some nurses have had to take another role during this time as counter-protesters against people protesting against the stay-at-home orders.

A small number of residents in states across the U.S. have gathered against COVID guidelines to protest what they see as a loss of their freedoms. People are angered that they are being told to stay home as nonessential stores and hair salons remain closed. People on socials media have praised the nurses standing guard to better protect the rest of the population as people disregard stay-at-home orders to protest.

Nurses are holding the line to save as many lives as possible during this pandemic.

They work around the clock to make sure that people who are being hospitalized with COVID-19 have a fighting chance of surviving the pandemic. Thank you to all of the nurses doing the work necessary to get our society back online day in and day out.

Nurses Are Keeping Hospitals Running And Patients Safe And They Deserve All The Praise

Indya Moore is like the rest of us. They are in self-isolation because of lockdown measures across the globe. Like millions of people living in the U.S., Moore is personally connected to the COVID-19 crisis because they have family members who are on the frontlines fighting this virus in the hospitals.

Indya Moore wants all essential workers to feel the love during this health crisis.

A post shared by Indya Moore (@indyamoore) on May 4, 2020 at 11:45am PDT

Health care workers, nursing home staff, grocery store workers, police officers, truck drivers, and so many other people are still working day-to-day to keep society moving. These people are willingly putting themselves in the line of fire to fulfill their duties.

When it comes to nursing, women make up 88 percent of the U.S. nursing workforce. In New York City, Asian, Black, and Latino people make up 70 percent of the essential worker population ranging from transportation to health care workers, according to Buzzfeed News. New York is currently the location of the largest and deadliest outbreak in the world.

For some people, the post is speaking directly to their experience and families.

Credit: giraso1_ / Instagram

Millions of Americans are continuing to go to work to make sure that people can have the food and essential services they need. For some, they have had to fight to get the necessary health precautions from their employers. Workers at Target, Whole Foods, Amazon, Walmart, and more retailers coordinated a major sickout protest to demand changes to their working conditions to make it safer.

Health care workers in New York City are at a much higher risk of contracting the virus than their counterparts around the world.

New York City has reported more than 177,000 cases of COVID-19, more than most countries. NYC has a population of about 8.4 million meaning that 1 in every 47 people have tested positive for COVID-19. At its peak, 573 people died in one day because of COVID-19 in New York City. Currently, there have been more than 13,000 deaths of COVID-19 reported by New York State.

In several cities around the world, people have started nightly celebrations of health care workers.

Los Angeles residents celebrate the health care workers at 8 p.m. PST daily. New York, Vancouver, and other cities have started their own daily health care worker celebrations. It is a daily reminder that those staying home are doing so to fight the virus and show appreciation for the people fighting the battle.

The message of love and care for essential workers is something American families are becoming familiar with.

Credit: marialissa11 / Instagram

Millions of Americans are out working to keep things afloat. Whether it is the grocery store worker stocking shelves or the nurse making sure that patients get their medicine on time, these workers are risking their lives to help us. They have helped us maintain a basic sense of normalcy while the rest of the world grappled with a pandemic.

Thank you to all of the frontline and essential workers doing everything they can to keep us moving forward.

Credit: naina1453 / Instagram

If you know an essential worker, take some time to thank them today and every day. They are doing the work so many people can’t or would refuse to do. More than 1 million Americans have contracted COVID-19 and new estimates project that more than 130,000 Americans will die from the virus. The doubling in the projected death rate comes as some states in the southeast have rushed to reopen ignoring guidelines set forth by the U.S. government and global health experts.

As always, familia. Stay safe. Stay home. Practice social distancing. We are in this together.